Cassette Store Day Special: J Dilla - Welcome 2 Detroit / The Shining

Wonderful, infuriating, subversive and unique, home taping didn’t kill music; it made it more personal and intimate. Since the format’s demise, nothing has quite managed to replicate the joy of slotting a cassette into your Walkman and pressing play (or the fear of pencil-winding back a half-chewed tape, hoping it wasn’t ruined forever).

Now in its 4th year, Cassette Store Day is one-day celebration of all things magnetic and fiddly, run by a small group of tape obsessives from across the globe. In their own words: “Cassette tapes aren’t just a format, they’re a culture, and cassette culture is as much about collaboration as doing it yourself.”

Choosing BBE’s contribution to Cassette Store Day must have been the easiest decision in our 20 year history. Production legend J Dilla‘s legacy is still gathering momentum, his influence reaching far beyond his chosen genre of hip hop. His weapon of choice to share his music throughout his career? Tapes. Lots of them.

Our close friendship with Dilla resulted in BBE releasing not only his debut solo LP ‘Welcome 2 Detroit‘, but also his final, posthumously completed masterpiece ‘The Shining‘. For Cassette Store Day, and for Dilla, we are proud to present both trailblazing LPs on one single, strictly limited cassette tape. So open up the case, slide the tape into your Walkman, sit back and enjoy 2 hours of the most iconic hip hop of all time.